Right. Yes I've considered making coarse filament in the first try as thick as the nozzle of the extruder allows and cutting that up into pellets. Those pellets can then be extruded into proper filament. It would mean two melt cycles per batch of filament so I'm considering adding small amounts of glycerol or PEG to the mix.
This model has its own spooler that is automatic. It looks like once its properly tuned all you need to do is ensure there is enough filament shreds in the hopper.
That would convince me to move, probably. Arch isn't bad but it's too much hassle to set it up and even then I might have left security gaps open.